For decades this pre-war building designed
by Rosario Candela was the only hotel property on the Upper East
Side to challenge the desirability and prestige of the Carlyle
Hotel on Madison Avenue.

A far less interesting building architecturally,
it did, however, face directly on Central Park and for many years
it boasted an extremely attractive sidewalk café, probably
the city's best on either side of its canopied entrance. The building
was known as The Stanhope Hotel.

Its conversion by Extell Development to a 26-unit
condominium residence in 2007, however, did away with the café
as well as its ground floor bar. The brown-brick building has
a three-story limestone base and the sidewalk café has
been replaced with hedges.

View from the
northwest showing canopy over former hotel's sidewalk café

When apartment sales languished initially,
Extell dropped the "Stanhope" name. In the initial offering,
one of the units had a price-tag of more than $47 million and
the cheaper units could be had for about $11 million.

Apartments facing
the avenue can see sunsets

Cetra Ruddy and John Simpson were the architects
for the conversion. The 17-story building has a La Palestra health
club, an in-house wine consultancy and Concierge Direct service.

Apartment sizes start at a whopping 4,100 feet - eliminating
most types of buyers except the very most exclusive.

The building is across Fifth Avenue from the
south end of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and across 81st Street
from 998 Fifth Avenue, one of the city's most impressive pre-war
apartment buildings.